Deer hunting death 'an accident'

The Summit County sheriff said Monday that the death of a deer hunter appears to be an accident.

"We don't have any reason to believe it was anything but an accident," Sheriff Dave Edmunds told the Deseret Morning News.

William Short, 44, of Riverton, was shot in the stomach as a friend climbed a fence with a rifle slung over his back, the sheriff said.

"As he was going over the fence, he touched off the trigger and it shot his friend in the abdomen," Edmunds said.

Ambulance crews were able to respond to the scene fairly quickly, but snowstorms in the area prohibited a medical helicopter from being dispatched. Short was taken to Heber Valley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

"It's just a real tragedy," Edmunds said.

Short was the second hunter to die in the opening weekend of the annual deer hunt. Police said William Fletcher, 58, from Weber County, was found dead in the Tony Grove area of Logan Canyon.

Cache County sheriff's deputies said Fletcher got separated from his two sons during the hunting trip. The sons tried to find their father but became lost themselves as the weather worsened. Cache County Sheriff's Lt. Matt Bilodeau said the sons called for help, and searchers looked for them in white-out conditions for seven hours.

About 5 p.m. Saturday, the weather improved and rescuers were able to find the sons. Fletcher's body was found and carried off the mountain by a helicopter.

The cause of his death remains under investigation, Bilodeau said.

"It could have been a medical condition. It could have been the elements," he said. "It could have been a combination of both."

Fletcher's body was sent to the Utah state medical examiner for an autopsy.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com